Sunday, 8 March 2015

I
Dik Dik were formed in Milan in 1965 by Pietruccio Montalbetti
(guitar, bass vocals), Giancarlo Sbriziolo (guitar, vocals), Erminio
Salvaderi (guitar, vocals), Mario Totaro (keyboards) and Sergio Panno
(drums). They
have been active for more than forty years and were very successful
in Italy during the late sixties and early seventies thanks to their
collaboration with Lucio Battisti and Mogol and thanks to the Italian
versions of songs like “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procol Harum
or “California Dreamin’” by the Mamas And Papas. They have
always been just a beat and pop band and “Suite per una donna
assolutamente relativa” is their only true progressive effort. The
album was released in 1972 (a period when almost everybody in Italy
seemed to go crazy for prog) but it was a commercial flop so, after
this album, the band turned back and took another musical direction.

“Suite
per una donna assolutamente relativa” is a concept work featuring
lyrics by the eclectic artist of Jewish origins Herbert Pagani. It
was conceived as a musical and poetical journey through “planet
woman”: the female body here is compared to an unknown world to
explore, both physically and spiritually... The music was composed by
keyboardist Mario Totaro and it’s an excellent mix of progressive
rock and Italian melody.

The
opener is the melodic, light “Donna paesaggio” (Woman Landscape).
A man is flying over a strange planet, “Woman landscape / I’m
flying over you with caresses / And along my journey I can see lands,
lakes, mountains and the mirage of my happiness / I will sing of you
/ Like a Greek poet of the ancient times... And my voice will be a
hymn to your naked freedom...”. The music is rich and features
beautiful touches of church-like organ and mellotron...

I Dik Dik

On
the second track “Il viso” (The Face) our “hero” comes down
with his parachute landing in a forest of “hair-trees”, then he
explores the brows surrounding “two lakes of blue water” (the
eyes), then the nose, the ears... “I can already see your lips on
the horizon / Your mouth is smiling to me / And your smile reveals a
city / Atlantis of light that kills me... And to know a little bit
more / I breathe awhile / Then I dive and go down...”.

The
sound of the moog marks a change in atmosphere that becomes darker in
the next track “Il cuore” (The Heart). “Like a cast-away on his
raft / I’m sailing down, along your veins...”, our hero is now
flushed away by brooks of phosphorescent blood... “I hear the
thunder of a factory / The central engine of the heart appears
enormous to me / I can see red Niagara falls swallowing me...”. The
rhythm becomes frenzied, the mood dramatic but our “explorer”
awakes alive, wet and out of danger because the heart let him break
through...

A
short interlude leads to the “Cathedral Of Love”... “I’m
climbing stairways of placenta / As if by magic I feel a body who is
singing for me unknown Ave Marias / Cathedral of Love, cathedral of
love / My heart beats fast but I go on...”. Well, the lyrics
describing the womb are a little bit bizarre (to say the least!) but
the music is really good, here almost mystic I dare say, featuring
excellent harmony vocals...

Next
track, “Gambe” (Legs), describes the dizziness provoked by a
“walking continent” on the streets of a city. “The earth is
trembling / New danger / Legs of woman / White vertigo... When you
walk in the city / It’s like a forest / That goes in a desert of
concrete...”. Here the rhythm rises sprinkled with flashes of moog,
then melts into a nice short pastoral interlude (the instrumental
“Suite relativa”).

“Monti
e valli” (Mountains and Valleys) is a bright, happy ballad and the
subject matter is, as you can guess, the bosom... “I see pyramids
and coliseums... Mountains and valleys of the youth / My hands are
caressing you / Like ocean waves / My fingers are like horses
breaking into gallop upon you...”.

Next
comes the delicate, sweet “I sogni” (The dreams) that tries to
describe in music and words the dreams of a woman as the souvenirs of
a childhood, the nightmares of the war, the wounds of past lovers
that consciousness tries to hide. “I dream your dreams...”. In my
opinion this is the best track on this album.

The
next track “La notte” (The night) tries to describe the act of
procreation. Tense vocals soar over a beautiful piano pattern counter
pointed by the sound of the moog... The poetry of the lyrics is
perhaps a little bit clumsy and naive but the overall result is not
so bad.

“Sintesi”
is a reprise of the opening theme and it concludes a particular,
interesting album... “Woman poetry / You are a miracle of rhythm
and harmony / You are the most fragile fortress on earth / You resist
the world but love will open you / And from the country of your body
new lives will blossom / Until life will be...”.

I
don’t think that this is an essential album but it is a very good
one and it would have deserved a better destiny. On the whole I think
that this work is more ironic than pretentious, as the funny art
cover, and it’s really worth listening to. It was re-released on CD
in 2003 by BMG with a nice paper sleeve reproducing the original LP
jacket and I’m sure that Italian prog lovers will love it...